Every rookery is compact of problems. The one that I
should like some authority to solve definitely is whether a number of rooks go through the season unmated or at any rate without a nest. So far as I have been able to count the birds in a rookery very much under observation, even from my windows, the inhabitants are more than twice as numerous as the nests by a considerable margin ; and in one nest three birds seem to be taking a hand. Do rooks, like ravens, mate for life ? Do rooks always nest in their first year or, like most gulls, sometimes take a year or two to mature fully ? Their gregarious habit, even more remarkable in winter than in spring, is presumably due to a sense of protection ; but has anyone ever seen the flock combine against an enemy, among which must be reckoned both the red and grey squirrel and the carrion crow and perhaps, occasionally, the jackdaw ?
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